All I'll say is...

THAT IS AWESOME....  

​Jon,

That is some of the most impressive and detail rich photography i have seen to date!  I will be downloading that software, following your work and waiting for more!

On another note, that scenery, locomotive and layout look outstanding.  Please post more photos of the layout and your motive power!  I have a new crush... 

Outstanding job...

Jas...

The enhanced depth of field

The enhanced depth of field makes it a lot more natural-looking. The excellent modeling makes it very believable.

I shouldn't worry much about tripod vs. placing the camera on the layout -- you do what you need to do to get the desired point of view. Compact cameras are nice, as opposed to SLRs, because the center of the lens will be closer to the ground.

Love it!

Jon,

The photos look wonderful!  Thanks for sharing.

Rick

Dang!

 Those are a couple of special photographs. Not only are the photos fantastic. The weathering and the variety in the vegetation is very well done. Thanks for sharing those Jon!

Combine

Yes, Jon, those programs are great. I use CombineZM, it's free.

I've placed for my 8 shots the camera at the track.

Wolfgang

Wow ! (and wow)

Excellent!

Where are the models, I only see a couple of prototype photos 

Fantastic modeling.  The greenery is very convincing and natural looking.

Quite Convincing

Photography technique aside, look at the modeling!!! Most excellent.

Jason must be drooling. Conrail blue and so real.

Grasshopper ...

Grasshoper, you are ready to leave the temple!

I see you have found that lighting counts for an awful lot in photography! Along with modeling and depth of field.

Cheers,

Charlie

Thanks for the favourable

Thanks for the favourable comments and helpful tips, guys. This is definitely the way to go.

I 've uploaded the third photo to Railimages, showing a CSX SD35 passing the West Yard at Sweethome Alabama. I used the Helicon Focus software again but also cropped and edited the photo in Picasa3, as well

The full sized photo is on the SWA facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweethome-Alabama/201342969884638

Hopefully time for another one tonight

Jon

I echo everyone's comments on

I echo everyone's comments on the great weathering and scenery.  The DOF is really good and I will definitely download the program.  However, the POV on the photo with the camera on the layout is so much closer to the POV of a person standing in front of the prototype than the slightly elevated first and last shots with tripod that I much prefer it to them.  

Regardless, fantastic results!

4 layers with tripod...

...but I REALLY like the hand-held version!!!

Depth of Focus... the other way

I got my new photo booth  today....

The side lights are 50W tungstens that come with the photo booth kit, the top light is a halogen that I've been using previously as well.

And since I've been reading my new Digital SLR's for Dummies book (the Canon T3 for Dummies is due in August...), I've discovered the joys of playing with Aperture settings - F22 anyone?

I do have to admit, it's a little weird having the thing running an exposure for over a second sometimes....

Note to self: clean and iron the backdrops.

Jon, it's not only the

Jon, it's not only the program. It's your great modeling and photography which makes such great pictures.

Wolfgang

I have one too

I have a similar one but mine is more square.

Jon's pictures are great but his modeling is what really makes them great.

Thanks for all the favourable

Thanks for all the favourable comments again. I was messing about with the program again last night and came up with these. I'm also finding out a lot more about the capabilities of the program

Jon, any articles in mind?

Jon:

The reason most article submissions get rejected is not the writing, it's the photography. You clearly have the photography part nailed - and it's also clear your modeling skills aren't too shabby either.

We'd love to have you consider doing some articles for pay - we can help you support your hobby habit a bit.

Use the article idea link under the Authors menu to respond if you think you might have some article ideas. Or if you don't have any burning article ideas, go ahead and respond anyway - we'll recommend some topics we could use.

Don't ever let writing skill or the lack of it stop you - if you can write well enough to do a coherent post on our site, your writing skill is sufficient. It's faily easy for our editors to polish your writing to make you sound good - it's the poor photos we can't easily fix - and you clearly have nothing to worry about there!

Yes, Jon, please do an article (or more!)

John,

As an author of several articles for Model Railroad Hobbyist I want to encourage you to do an article for them.  I had no previous writing experience and with a little help from the MRH staff (mainly Charlie) I was able to get published.  Not only will you be helping out your fellow modelers, you'll get some $$$ to "invest" in your railroad.  I for one look forward to seeing more of your excellent railroad in one of the monthly MRH ezines!

Rick

Thanks Joe and Rick. I'll be

Thanks Joe and Rick. I'll be happy to do something for MRH

A few more practice shots

I still have some issues with re-sizing, but that will come with practice

Jon

Nice work!

Awesome work by all of you! Great photos and AMAZING layouts and models!

I just wanted to add that those of you with a DSLR (like the Canon EOSs or Nikon Ds) can utilize the tripod and the best way to achieve DOF (depth of field) is to crank your Aperture open as much as possible and set your ISO to the appropriate level. What this does is allows the maximum amount of light into the camera and it makes the focal length narrow so you can align the focal length with the exact point of the photo you are wanting to exhibit. 

No editing work required, unless you want to sweeten it up and you have total control over what you want to emphasize in the photograph. 

Happy photographing! 

Mine aren't models but here are a few examples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosportsphotog/5967625628/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosportsphotog/5967617806/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosportsphotog/5967068725/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosportsphotog/5967064585/

Wide open and depth of field ...

Hi SP,

I have to disagree (a bit) with your post. While what you are saying works for prototype photos where depth of field is typically huge, with a model photo shooting wide-open is usually a big problem.  Why?  Because with the camera  close to the subject, depth of field is dramatically reduced. Shooting at f2.8 with a 50mm lens from 2 feet away will yield a depth of field of only a few inches.

If you really want those few inches sharp and the rest of the photo blurry (very blurry in most places) then fine. Portrait and flower photographers do this all the time. But it's my experience this looks a little funny in model railroad photos.

But in the above situation shoot photos of HO scale models, you'll probably be better off at f16. The subject will be sharp, but shallow depth of field won't make the entire image too blurry. Here are a couple of photos from the photography clinic I gave at X2011W showing how dramatically depth of field blurriness intrudes in model railroad photos.

f/4.5, 50mm, 1/30th, iso 400

f/32, 50mm, 1.6 sec, iso 400

Note that the first photo was shot at f/4.5.  If I'd opened the lens up to f/2.8 depth of field would have been even worse.

Back to the thread topic. The sweet spot of my lens for sharpness is around f/5.6. So if I'm using Helicon Focus why don't I shoot the component images at that f-stop? The answer is to give Helicon as much in-focus image to work with as possible. I believe it does a better job if it can see more in focus in each component image.  

Why don't I use f/32 for each shot and maximize component image depth of field? Well, high f-numbers, such as f/22 and f/32 suffer from diffraction effects making the image softer -- plus it's more difficult to hold the camera steady for a long exposure than a short one, and it takes longer to shoot 12 3-second exposurs than 12 1/2-second exposures. In practice I tend to shoot focus bracket component shots at f/11 or f/16 which seems to be a reasonable compromise between keeping the individual images as sharp as possible and keeping depth of field high enough so Helicon will work well.

One other thing, if I shot at the sweet spot of f/4.5 or f/5.6 you can see from the first photo above, that I'd need a lot more focus bracket shots to get everything in the Helicon processed image in focus. Helicon can't create focus where there is none, it merely selects the component photo with the best focus for each location of the final image.

FWIW

Charlie

Another example, I've used

Another example, I've used CombineZM.

I've shot 8 pictures with f/5 and stacked them:

I've cut the resulting picture to get this:

Wolfgang

A Hundred Ways

Yeah, Charlie you can do it that way too. I was just making a very broad suggestion, of course the photog would have to adjust accordingly and it depends on your glass and light. Using a 50mm prime... you will have to be pretty far back. As you know, there are a hundred ways to achieve a look.

I was just suggesting one. 

Disagreement on terms?

Charlie,

I think that you and SP are saying the same thing - he's just saying to "crank it open" because the numbers get larger as you actually shrink the aperture size down. It is a bit counterintuitive.

The photo I took of the reefer was at f22 - I'm told above that you get too much diffraction problems, but f22 itself is pretty safe.

Why haven't I tried Helicon Focus?

1. Just got the DLSR, haven't had time to try the multiple focus distance thing out yet; and

2. I don't think anything on my layout is deep enough to need it...

Jeff, my layout's only 21

Jeff, my layout's only 21 inches wide but I still find it very easy to get the foreground and background out of focus.

I took another series of photos today for the latest image. I chose the subject, as the length of the scene is approximately 7 feet from the camera to the sky/backscene.

Included here are the first and last photos in the stack, the basic Helicon Focus image and the straightened, cropped and re-lit image after editing in Picasa3

First shot

Last shot

Initial Helicon Focus image

Final image after editing

There are still some imperfections with the depth of field, especially on the loco, but further practice should improve this aspect.

Jon